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2017 Online Discount Broker Survey Year-End Results

Top 10 Brokers By Number of Responses
> YEAR-END RESULTS HOME

The table below provides rankings for the 10 most popular brokers—those for whom we received 25 or more AAII member responses during 2017.

Top possible score = 4.00 (More on scoring below)

Brokerage Number of Responses Trade Price Speed of Execution Reliability Satisfaction
Broker-Assisted Trades Electronic Trades Broker-Assisted Trade Electronic Trades
Fidelity Brokerage Services
146
3.44
3.57
1.11
3.62
1.05
3.66
Charles Schwab
116
3.13
3.35
0.8
3.38
0.85
3.39
TD Ameritrade
79
3
3.33
0.84
3.34
0.9
3.27
Scottrade, Inc.
67
2.79
3.27
0.75
3.09
0.58
3.06
Vanguard Brokerage Services
45
3.22
3.27
0.69
3.27
0.62
3.36
E*Trade Financial
23
3.17
3.48
0.87
3.22
0.91
3.35
Interactive Brokers
17
3.59
3.59
0.59
3.59
0.41
3.65
USAA Brokerage Services
11
2.91
3.27
1.18
3.64
1.18
3.64
T. Rowe Price Brokerage
4
3.25
3.5
0.75
3.75
0.75
3.25
TradeKing
3
3.33
3.33
0
3.33
0
3.33

Top possible score = 4.00

  SCORING PROCEDURE
Values were designated for each response (i.e., 4=very satisfied, 3=satisfied, 2=somewhat satisfied, 1=unsatisfied). For example, if there were five responses of satisfied, that was multiplied by its corresponding value, in this case three. After multiplying each response by its corresponding value, we added the total. Once we arrived with a sum we divided by the total number of responses for that particular question.

Using our example, let's say that two responses were given for very satisfied, five for satisfied, two for somewhat satisfied, one for unsatisfied, and one for no response. The equation looks like this:

(2 x 4) + (5 x 3) + (2 x 2) + (1 x 1) + (1 x 0) = 28
28/(2 + 5 + 2 + 1 + 1) = X
28/11 = 2.55